In Praise of Sport Vehicles

...In Praise of Sport Vehicles In his article on sport-utility vehicles, Irwin M. Stelzer takes a couple of cheap shots at public transportation ("The Joy of Sport-Utility Vehicles," March 16...

...Stelzer cogently argues that more lives would be saved by making small cars safer (by making them bigger and heavier) than by making big vehicles more dangerous (via downsizing...

...Thus, I have more mobility where I can take the car or use public transit than in an auto-utopia where I must drive or die...

...government, spends about $20 billion per year on highways and only $4 billion a year on mass transit—minus the cost of various unfunded mandates that the feds dump on transit providers (like the Americans with Disabilities Act and labor rules making it hard to lay off personnel...

...He fairly suggests that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's reticence on this critical point speaks volumes about whether safety remains the agency's top priority...

...Ironically, a 1997 NHT-SA study, the "Relationship of Vehicle Weight to Fatality and Injury Risk," provides the answer: Adding 100 pounds to cars would have nearly eight times the lifesaving effect of removing 100 pounds from light trucks...

...Both are wrong...

...I think they often forget what makes this country great: It's us, not them...

...Michael E. Lewyn Buffalo, NY Irwin M. Stelzer pinpoints the deep-down motivation of those trying to regulate these vehicles out of existence: Sport-utes are simply too much fun—and something must be done about that...

...A regular passenger car cannot fit the whole family unless someone is unbelted or riding illegally...

...In Stelzer's own Washington and its suburbs, cars and public transportation coexist, and auto ownership is possible but not mandatory...

...Call me quaint, but I think that mobility means flexibility...

...My 18-month-old is required to be in a car seat until age 5, the infant must be in a rear-facing seat, and my 9-year-old must wear his seat belt...

...Stelzer says, "When it turns out that you prefer your car to a planner's mass transit, the central authority responds by taxing your car and using taxpayer funds to subsidize its pet, mass transit...

...Why can't we use those places as role models and have real mobility...

...But if common sense argues that "bigger is safer," what does objective science show...

...But both Stelz-er and radical environmentalists have one thing in common: Both appear to agree that cars must either be our only way of getting around or be wiped off the face of the earth...

...Stelzer says the car means "personal mobility" and "an open society...

...Single-vehicle crashes alone account for nearly half of all fatalities—and the unfortunate soul who collides with a tree, bridge abutment, or jersey wall is much safer in a large vehicle than in an econobox...

...Stelzer understandably sneers at environmentalists who attack the "freedom of the road...

...None of them can ride in the front seat because of my mandated airbags, which could kill them if I had an accident...

...Dawn Lussier Oxford, MA...

...Our "central authority," the U.S...

...Unfortunately, this "Main Street" issue has been ill-reported by much of the mainstream media...

...Diane K Steed Coalition for Vehicle Choice Washington, DC Ihave just finished reading Irwin Stelzer's article on sport-utility vehicles, and though I do not particularly like mini-vans, I am forced to buy one because of government regulations...

...The less they interfere with the consumer, the better...

...That's because the vast majority of highway fatalities (over 87 percent) occur in non-car/truck crashes...

...With light trucks now comprising nearly half of new-vehicle sales, it's right that we examine their impact on safety and the environment...

...I wish government bureaucrats would see the situations of real-life people, not just statistics, before they decide from their lofty perches what is best for us...

...False...

...I have two children and one on the way...